Impact Assessment and Adaptation Options for Climatic Change in Paddy Cultivation: A Case Study in Ampara District, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors of the economy due to climate change impacts. The key objective of this study was to identify futuristic mitigation practices of paddy production in Ampara District, Sri Lanka, and to assess the risks of climate change. The climate change consequences such as increasing sea level would make rice production vulnerable to climate change. With the sea-level increase, the effect of salinity could permeate, resulting in lower fertility of agricultural land. Moreover, rice diseases and rodents are much threatened by climate change in the study area. The results of this study showed the losses in agricultural production. The highest crop losses appeared to occur in the Ampara District in the last decade. Furthermore, the significant threats for agricultural crop damage were seen from extreme events such as droughts (52.2%), floods (38.9%), and severe wind events (4.2%). However, paddy farmers are practicing various adaptive strategies to buffer the impacts to cope with the situation. These adaptation measures need further improvement to experience reduced implications of climate change. Therefore, the study recommends that the farmers need to practice a variety of techniques such as mixed cropping, intercropping, construction of structural flood control measures, precision agriculture, and cultivating-tolerant paddy varieties to observe minimum damaging impacts.